"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
Edmund Burke. What happened on this Day in History?

Friday, February 21, 2014

This Day in WWII History: Feb 21, 1944: Tojo makes himself "military czar"

On this day, Hideki Tojo, prime minister of Japan,
grabs even more power as he takes over as army chief of staff, a
position that gives him direct control of the Japanese military.

After
graduating from the Imperial Military Academy and the Military Staff
College, Tojo was sent to Berlin as Japan's military attache after World War I.
Having earned a reputation for sternness and discipline, Tojo was given
command of the 1st Infantry Regiment upon returning to Japan.

In 1937,
he was made chief of staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, China.
When he returned again to his homeland, Tojo assumed the office of
vice-minister of war and quickly took the lead in the military's
increasing control of Japanese foreign policy, advocating the signing of
the 1940 Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy that made Japan an
"Axis" power.

In July 1940, he was made minister of war and soon
clashed with the prime minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoye, who had been
fighting for reform of his government, namely, demilitarization of its
politics.

In October, Konoye resigned because of increasing tension
with Tojo, who succeeded him as prime minister. Not only did Tojo keep
his offices of army minister and war minister when he became prime
minister, he also assumed the offices of minister of commerce and
industry.

Tojo, now a virtual dictator, quickly promised a "New Order in Asia," and toward this end supported the bombing of Pearl Harbor
despite the misgivings of several of his generals. Tojo's aggressive
policies paid big dividends early on, with major territorial gains in
Indochina and the South Pacific.

But despite Tojo's increasing control
over his own country--tightening wartime industrial production and
assuming yet another title, chief of staff of the army, on February 21,
1944--he could not control the determination of the United States,
which began beating back the Japanese in the South Pacific.

When Saipan
fell to the U.S. Marines and Army on June 22, 1944, Tojo's government
collapsed.

Upon Japan's surrender, Tojo tried to commit suicide by
shooting himself with an American .38 pistol but he was saved by an
American physician who gave him a blood transfusion.

He was convicted of
war crimes by an international tribunal and was hanged on December 22,
1948.